Earlier today the Syrian Arab Army had announced that 1,000 fresh soldiers arrived in Deir Ezzor to liberate it from ISIS.

The U.S. planes came from Erbil in the Kurdish separatist region of Iraq.

The Syrian troops were holding positions on Jabal Tharda, a mountain that overlooks Deir Ezzor’s airport. The mountain is now fully under Islamic State control. With this IS has firecontrol over the airport and the Deir Ezzor garrison as well as more than 150,000 civilians living under government protection are thereby cut off from supplies and any further reinforcements. Government forces have launched a counterattack to regain the vital position….

The U.S. air attack on Deir Ezzor was certainly not a mistake but well planed.

It is a signal to Russia and Syria. I am not sure though what lunacy it is supposed to convey.

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday that he’s planning to introduce legislation next week to provide additional financial support to Israel, arguing a new agreement with the United States doesn’t go far enough….

The U.S. and Israel this week formally finalized a security agreement that includes $38 billion for the Middle Eastern ally over the next decade….

But Graham added that Israeli officials told him they wanted more money but “just felt like they couldn’t go beyond what the MOU said.”

US and Russia reached a deal on Syria for a ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and later military cooperation and a roadmap for political transition. The Syrian government accepted the deal while the major opposition rebel groups rejected it, issuing some demands to secure their agreement. The ceasefire officially began on Monday evening. Details of the deal are trickling out, the White House is publicly doubting Russia, privately arguing among themselves, and in response Russia wants to publish the (withheld) text of the deal.

Al Qaeda and Ahrar al-Sham rebel groups launched an offensive in the Golan Heights region against the Syrian military, allegedy with air support from the Israeli air force. The Syrian military claims that their air defense shot down an Israeli fighter jet and a drone. The Israeli military denies the shootdown but confirms recent airstrikes on Syria.

Kurds report that ISIS fighters are fleeing the Turkish border offensive in Syria and joining al Qaeda groups in Aleppo. BBC interviewed surrendering rebels in Daraya who say they joined due to financial hardship and the revolution is a lie. In Ukraine, Stephen Cohen says that Pres. Poroshenko has unilaterally changed the terms of the Minsk deal.

In the days after 9/11, while Ground Zero continued to smoulder, millions heard Dan Rather and various media outlets repeat vague and unconfirmed reports of arrests that took place that day. These rumors held that Middle Eastern men, presumably Arabs, were arrested in explosive-packed vans in various places around the city on September 11th, and that some had even been photographing and celebrating those events. What most do not realize is that those reports were not mere rumors, and we now have thousands of pages of FBI, CIA and DOJ reports documenting those arrests.

Apple issued a security update for those devices Thursday after researchers discovered spyware that turns hand-held Apple devices into the mother of all snoops, allowing remote operators to intercept all voice and data communications and pass along every photograph and video.

Researchers said spyware had never been found before this month that could “jailbreak” an iPhone or iPad and seize total control of its functions.

Efforts to use the spyware have surfaced in Mexico and the United Arab Emirates, where critics of the government appear to have been targeted for surveillance….

The Israeli company thought to have produced the spyware said in a statement that it insisted that governments that bought its products use them only in lawful ways….

Apple Inc. was notified by Citizen Lab and Lookout on Aug. 15 of the vulnerability in the iPhones and iPads, and it said the security update provided Thursday blocked the use of Trident spyware.

It has long been an open secret that the settlement enterprise was launched under false pretenses, involving the expropriation of Palestinian land for ostensibly military purposes when the true intent was to build civilian settlements, which is a violation of international law.

Now a secret document from 1970 has surfaced confirming this long-held assumption. The document, a copy of which has been obtained by Haaretz, details a meeting in the office of then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, at which government and military leaders spoke explicitly about how to carry out this deception in the building of Kiryat Arba, next to Hebron.

Together, the Israeli state and the KKL-JNF – an NGO that works closely with the government and owns around 13 percent of the land in Israel – are building the new town of Hiran here in the Negev desert. As part of the town’s master plan, the “unrecognised” Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran will be demolished to make way for up to 10,000 Jewish Israelis.

Late last month, police arrived in Umm al-Hiran with a tractor and team of surveyors to build a fence next to the village. Five people were arrested as villagers protested against the police presence….

Established in 1956, the village of Um al-Hiran has never been recognised by the state…

How much of this New York Times editorial titled “America Is Complicit in the Carnage in Yemen,” calling for an end of American military aid to Saudi Arabia in the wake of attacks on civilians in its neighbor country sounds familiar?